The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of potted Carnation plant, botanically known as Dianthus caryophyllus and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name Margarita.
The new Carnation is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Aalsmeer, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new compact Carnation cultivars suitable for container production with attractive flower coloration.
The new Carnation originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor of the Dianthus caryophyllus cultivar Kowipa, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,808, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Dianthus caryophyllus identified as code number 996090-06, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The cultivar Margarita was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Aalsmeer, The Netherlands, in 2000.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings at Aalsmeer, The Netherlands, has shown that the unique features of this new Carnation are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.